Rdio and dmg launch music streaming joint venture

Music streaming service Rdio has entered into a joint venture with dmg Radio Australia, in what the platform claims is a global first.

The deal covers all of DMG’s brands including Nova, smoothfm, Adelaide’s 5AA, Central Coast station Star FM and digital stations Koffee and NovaNation.

dmg’s stations and websites will promote Rdio services and curate playlists. Rdio is based on a listener subscription model with dmg and Rdio sharing the revenues from Rdio Australia.

Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio told Mumbrella: “We see this as groundbreaking. This is the first time we’ve had a partnership with radio in any of the countries we operate in – the US, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil. This merging of broadcast and digital goes a step beyond curated radio, and we’ll look to replicate this type of structure in other territories.

“People talk about cannibalisation but we found that DMG have a refreshing view, they see the value in partnership, turning on their users to new music. I love radio; that’s how I discovered new music as a kid, and through Rdio I can keep getting that exposure. We see Rdio as Twitter meets music.”

The move will comprise an editorial and content partnership. Presenters and individual stations will maintain separate profiles on the platform and curate new music for users who follow them. DMG will incorporate Rdio in to its existing communication channels, creating new content around specific artists and events held by DMG’s stations.

ABC’s Triple J has received criticism over the fact that their Spotify playlists contain ads for users who do not subscribe to the premium ad-free service on the platform.

Larner told Mumbrella: ” We’ll never say never, but in the near term we have no plans to have ads. We want a clean listening experience, without ads polluting the audio.”

Cathy O’Connor, dmg Radio Australia’s CEO said in a release: “35% of our listeners use streaming music services and we’re committed to evolving to meet their changing behaviours, be that via broadcast, digital and mobile platforms.

Rdio brings a strong global track record in developing leading edge technology to the partnership and we were particularly impressed with the social elements of the service, around the discovery and sharing of music.”